Reports have surfaced that Manchester City will be interested in a swap deal for Antoine Griezmann and their first choice striker, Kun Aguero who is valued at £60m by the Citizens. The transfer deal is not the unlikeliest of possibilities with the Frenchman already linked to Barcelona for a move after this season if not in the January window.
Kun Aguero has been City’s leading goal scorer for the past few seasons now and has already racked up 23 in 28 all around appearances this season. A staggering statistic for a striker who is reported to have fallen out of favour with Pep Guardiola.
Brazilian youngster, Jesus Gabriel was pegged to be the 29-year-old’s successor in the lone striker role but went down with a medial collateral ligament injury in the 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace before the start of the year. While he is recovering on the sidelines, Aguero has more than picked up the slack netting one against Bristol City in the 3-2 sem-final win in the EFL League Cup.
His goal against Napoli to send the side to the knockout stages of the Champions League broke the club’s record of the highest goals scored set by Eric Brook. He has registered 192 so far and has been quoted to be a club legend by Guardiola himself. However, has the striker lost his faith in the team?
That seems highly unlikely with the club cruising through the Premier League with a 12-point lead at the top and still in the running for the domestic cup honours. They are through to the final of the Carabo cup and are stacked favourably against Cardiff City in the FA Cup fourth round. The round of 16 tie against Basel might not give them as big a headache as Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are about to suffer from their matchups against Barcelona and Juventus, respectively.
Pep’s ambitions of landing the quadruple is not a far-off possibility and with Griezmann leading the lineup from the top at least a couple of honours might just be guaranteed. The 26-year-old is currently playing out his fourth season with Los Rojiblancos and has scored 10 times in 26 appearances furthering another 7 assists.
Diego Simeone’s men have bowed out of the Champions League with a disappointing group stage performance and are looking like a shadow of the side that challenged for the final trophy in the 2015/16 season. Griezmann is at a juncture in his career where he can topple Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the best player in the world. However, he cannot do so without trophies and maybe a move to the Premier League will help him get there.
